Sunday, April 26, 2009

1) Herve This says 'did you hear that?' Yeah, dude, it's the sound of a fork hitting a plate. Happens all the time when you're eating REAL FOOD. Quite a breakthrough.

2) The 'if I wasn't on camera, I'd be spitting this out' look on the reporters face. She actually looked like she might throw up. AWESOME!!! Yea for molecular gastronomy!!!!!

Seriously folks. Can we stop caring about chefs who play with their chemistry sets and create 'synthetic food'? This isn't the next culinary step, as much as the food press would like to think it is. I've had my share of cold/lukewarm, geleed, ultra-manipulated, tweezer plated(who thought of this gem????) food. It's not restorative. It's not. It's gimmickry at best. The smell of a lamb loin searing perfectly in a pan is sexy. Tomatoes so fresh and warm that you can still smell the plant is sexy. Plating a cod sperm gelee on top of an absinthe 'pillow' with tweezers and then inserting the 'flavors of mulch' is NOT. Get over it and get back to real food and real artistry. This artistry is in the pan and in the day to day. Not in the chemicals.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

We're shifting gears pretty drastically here in Central PA. Next week, I'll debut our spring a la carte menu and by friday night, we'll be into spring tasting menu mode. I've been working on the spring menu pretty much every hour of every day for the past two weeks. Ever seen those people who have that 'I'm just not here' look on their face? That's been me for the past two weeks. Both at work and at home. It's a really all consuming process. If you don't believe me, call the restaurant and ask Karen. She can bend your ear a little bit about my 'I'm just not here' look when I'm working on menus.

So, I thought it would be an interesting post if I described what goes in to producing the a la carte menu(we call it the 'big menu') at The Sheppard Mansion. Some of this might seem 'out there' to you 'normal' folks, but please remember, I've never described myself as 'normal'.

The first step is to outline the menu slots. We carry four first courses, four second courses and seven main courses. Within the first courses, usually two are meat based and two are seafood. These courses are usually hot. Our second courses are mostly the 'soup and salad' section of the menu and almost always cold. The main courses are divided into three fish and four meat courses. OK, so now the menu slots are assigned. Now, the hard part. What the hell are we going to put in those slots???

With each new season, I make a long list of the possible ingredients that I can work with. I then divide these ingredients into first, second or main course. Sometimes, it's a main protein that I want to work with(i.e. veal sweetbreads) and then the dish gets built around that 'star' ingredient. Sometimes, it's a supporting cast member that I really want to work with and I build the dish from the back to the front.(i.e. morel mushrooms or ramps) Once I've slotted something into each slot, then I start to build the dish. Getting to the point where there is something slotted into each space isn't as easy as it sounds. I've spent two weeks with an open first course slot and just recently filled it.(Oh, joy!) So, like I said, once the slots are filled then it's time to build the dish. At this point, I make two lists. One list has all the ingredients that 'play well' with the slotted ingredient. The second list I make is purely historical. What already composed dishes or ideas could be tweaked or updated and put on the plate at TSM? Once I have those two lists, then I start to look at the ingredients in terms of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and crunch. This is where the post is going to get a little touchy-feely. If you're uncomfortable, I understand. Like I said, I never admitted to be normal.

So, here's what happens. I put the dish together and then taste it in my head. I try and visualize what it's going to taste like. I guess it could be considered taste memory. Every time I taste an ingredient, I make a memory of its flavor. Sometimes, walking through Kathy Glahn's garden, I'll take my pocket knife out and cut something straight from the vine and pop it in my mouth.(does it get any fresher than that?)

So, once I 'memory taste' it and like it, then it goes down on paper. After going on paper, then we move to cooking it and tasting it in the restaurant.(we're doing that this week.) Some things will work, some won't. Some products will be available, some won't. That's just the way it goes. We test and then retest. Once I'm happy with the finished product, it hits the menu. Sound simple?

OK, now a couple of words about our spring menu:

1) you'll notice peas, asparagus and morel mushrooms all over the menu. I don't apologize for that. This is the season for you to be eating those items and for us to be cooking with them. Spring will be over before you know it and you'll have 10 months to wait before having those ingredients again. The only time I try and not duplicate ingredients is on our tasting menus. If this really bugs you, get over it. It's gonna be more of the same in the summer. A menu littered with Tomato Lady tomatoes, corn and the best Central PA has to offer. Again, get over it or go to TGIMcFunster's and have the 'sneeze bar'.....that stuff's certainly fresh and 'seasonal'.

2) You'll notice that there are terms and ingredients on the menu that you may be unfamiliar with or have a preconceived notion about. Relax. Our service staff is the best restaurant service staff between Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Baltimore. Wanna challenge me? Bring it. It'll end badly for you. They're that good. So, ASK THEM IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS!!! Also, I haven't steered away from 'scary' items like pigs feet even though I've been told that the dish featuring pigs feet won't sell simply because of the feet. I'm not gonna change the name to 'pied au cochon'. It's delicious pigs feet, folks. Beef heart and tongue? You betcha. HAVE YOU EVER TRIED IT??? Would I put it on my menu if it tasted like ass? Seriously. Trust me. This is a topic for another post, but WHEN ARE WE GOING TO WAKE UP AND EAT FLAVORFUL FOOD AMERICA? Beef tenderloin SUCKS. It's flavorless, mushy protein matter. Period.

So, here's the menu, folks. I'll be updating the blog with our testing and process on each dish in the next couple of days. Cheers!